Teacher joins Oswego mayor's race

An Oswego teacher announced his plans to challenge incumbent Village President Gail Johnson in the April election.

"We have gone astray from what I think are the core values of the village," Troy Parlier said.

"Right now everything has been tax, tax, tax, without much thought being given to anything else."

The village has increased the home rule sales tax and added new taxes on motor fuel and prepared food and beverages as well as increased residential water rates, he said.

"When you put all this together, it really impacts people."

Johnson is looking for a second term leading the village. Oswego Trustee Joe West in October announced his bid for the mayoral post as well.

Parlier is a District 308 eighth-grade math teacher at Thompson Junior High School in Oswego.

Some of the decisions have a direct impact on the school district, he said, referencing the village board's decision to create a downtown tax increment financing district. TIF districts are government financial tools aimed to encourage private investment in communities.

The village board also changed developer impact fees, he said.

"The school district is a partner in impact fee revenues; it's a big impact on our schools when they are changed," he said.

"It's easy to turn the dial and raise taxes, I think that's being done."

More emphasis should be on recruiting new businesses to expand sales tax revenues, particularly on the Orchard Road corridor, he said.

"The village has projects; we can pay for them with taxes or we can expand our base of revenues with new businesses. I don't think we have touched that nearly as hard as we could," he said.

"The Orchard Road corridor has a lot of potential to be developed," he said. Parlier also pitched the idea of creating a high-tech corridor in Oswego.

Parlier, 54, has resided in Oswego with his family for 22 years.

Parlier has an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering technology from Bradley University. He worked 20 years in the financial industry, returned to school and received a master's degree in teaching from Aurora University. His second master's degree in educational leadership is from Concordia University.

"My background would bring a unique blend of skills for this," he said.

"I collected a lot of opinions in the last couple of years. I have gotten a sense from them that we could do better.”